The Missing Nobody
by Just Your Average Writer Here
Summary: Ralph and Jack are in the woods of the island trying to collect wood for their fire and Jack plays a little trick on the Chief...


Ralph looked out towards the supple water of the ocean that surrounded their island and saw the evening sunlight reflecting off of its surface. The orange-red colours mixed in with the blue of the water, making the sight breathtaking.

It was Samneric's turn to watch the littluns, and he could see a few of them playing around in the shallows of the low tide and splashing each other, not seeming to have a care in the world.

Ralph poked the fire with his long stick to make it burn more, so the smoke would travel out to the sea and hopefully a passing plane or boat might see them and rescue them.

"Get more wood, the fire isn't going to burn anymore, it hasn't got enough oxygen," Jack Merridew's voice snapped Ralph out of his thoughts. Ralph glanced toward the other boy, Jack Merridew, of whom he had been on fire duty with for the past two hours.

"Why don't you come with me then, I won't be able to carry all the wood myself," said Ralph, standing up and throwing the stick he once held into the fading orange flames that were left of the fire.

Jack stood up, and led the way into the woods, with Ralph following close behind.

The two boys walked in silence for a few minutes, the darkness caving in on them as they entered the deeper part of the woods. Ralph accidentally stepped on a twig, which caused the boy to jump, and bump into Jack during the process.

Jack smirked as Ralph regained his balance, "Are you scared, Ralph?"

Ralph shook his head hard, "No, of course not. There is nothing to be afraid of."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

Ralph rolled his eyes and spoke with impatience, "can we please just find some wood to burn so we can get out of here? It's getting darker by the minute."

Jack sighed and started to walk away from Ralph, looking for more pieces of wood to collect for the fire. "I don't know why we're collecting wood at this hour. It's about to get dark, anyways."

"So we can use it for tomorrow," Ralph informed Jack, and started to help him look around. He couldn't see that well in the dark, but it was just light enough to make out the shapes of everything around him.

It was quiet for a long while, and Jack had disappeared into some other part of the woods, and Ralph decided to take a look around the area. He picked out some large pieces of wood and placed them in a pile next to a tree.

Once Ralph thought he had gathered enough wood, he decided to go look for Jack. The forest was quite dark now, and Ralph was having trouble seeing through the thickened leaves that surrounded him as he walked.

"Jack? Where are you?" he called out for the other boy. There was no response, and Ralph was starting to get worried. He told the others they'd be back once it got dark.

"Jack, I'm serious, stop messing around and hurry up!" Ralph called. He was starting to get frustrated now. Jack had better not gone far, because Ralph wasn't in the mood to go look for him in the dark.

"Jack, if you don't come back right now the others are going to get worried about -" Ralph suddenly stopped, and turned fully around, staring at a large bush behind him. He swore he heard a growling noise coming from there. Ralph stared at it suspiciously.

What was that?

Ralph decided to just forget about it and keep looking for Jack, and he wandered a bit further into the woods. Surely there wouldn't be any sort of dangerous creatures around here?

Ralph shrugged the thought away, and wrapped his arms around himself. Perhaps he should just wait here for Jack, he'd be bound to turn up eventually. What else could he be doing in a dark forest at this hour of night?

As time passed on, Ralph was beginning to get concerned for the choirboy. He stood up, and began to walk into the depths of the woods, moving around a lot of branches and trees wasn't an easy thing to do in the dark.

"Jack…?" Ralph called softly, as he moved into an unfamiliar area. It was quiet, too quiet almost.

Ralph jumped as he suddenly heard a rustle of leaves on his right. He stumbled back as he saw a large figure emerge with bearing teeth and piercing eyes emerge from the bush next to him.

"Aaaaaaaah!" Ralph screamed, and he began quickly scrambling backwards as the figure came after him.

Ralph sprinted, dodging trees and bushes along the way as he heard heavy footsteps chasing after him.

Just as Ralph was about to hide behind a small boulder, he felt a pair of strong arms wrap around his waist and kept a firm grip on the boy.

"Let go of me!" Ralph yelled, as he tried and failed at the attempt to escape his capture's tight grip.

As Ralph struggled to break free, he heard something that sounded like laughter coming from the mysterious figure behind him.

"Relax, it's only me," it said, and Ralph turned around to find Jack Merridew standing right behind him with a smirk on his face.

Ralph's own face turned as red as a tomato and Jack's smirk grew wider. "Y-you're the one who scared m-me?" Ralph stuttered, and stared at Jack in bewilderment.

Jack nodded. "Yep, it was me all along."

"B-but why?" Ralph questioned.

"Why?" Jack said, raising an eyebrow. "Because earlier before, you said you weren't scared. And I'd thought while we were still in here I'd prove you wrong."

After a moment of surprised shock, Ralph glared at Jack.

When Jack saw the look on the other boy's face, he began to laugh.

"It's not funny, Jack!" Ralph said angrily, his face reddening again.

"You should've seen the look on your face, oh boy do I wish I had a camera to capture that...it was priceless," Jack pretended to wipe tears from his eyes.

Ralph's glare faltered a little as Jack laughed louder. He couldn't help but crack a small smile either.

"See? It was funny. Admit it, you were scared, weren't you?" Jack's laughter ceased.

"Maybe I was a little scared okay?" Ralph said, as the two begun to make their way back to the camp.

"A little? You screamed like a girl," Jack laughed.

Ralph rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up. I did not sound like a girl when I screamed. Let's just get back to camp before the others start worrying about us, okay?"

"Fine, fine…" Jack sighed and followed Ralph out of the woods and back to the camp. "Wait until I tell the others what happened."

Ralph's face simply reddened once more and Jack couldn't help but grin.

* * *

><p><strong>I'd like to thank LustForTheLetters who helped me out on this one, so thank you! I hope you guys enjoyed that, and your reviews would be most appreciated. Thanks! <strong>


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